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The Alaska Fisheries Report with Jay Barrett (6/4)
It's the end of the line for our fishing industry, warns film (6/7)
NMFS picks get mixed backing (6/8)
Ocean Conference Opens in Seward (KGLL Audio) (5/21)
Arctic conference emphasizes cooperation to address new issues (6/5)
Fish council to review controversial crab ratz program (6/5)
Crab rationalization: How the program has affected crews (6/5)
High pressure tactics were in place at Dutch Harbor (6/9)
Fisherman Suspected of Boating Drunk (6/8)
STATE
Fish and Game Officials Worried About Lack of Processing Capacity (KDLG Audio) (5/22)
Opinion. Bristol Bay fishery hits impressive milestone (6/6)
Opilio crab TACS might be slashed (6/5)
MARKETING
Global Foods Collaborative will morph into Professional Foods Group (6/5/09)
FEDERAL
Update: Aleutian Islands Risk Assessment Advisory Panel meets in Anchorage (6/2). ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Aleutian Islands Risk Assessment (AIRA) Advisory Panel convened for the first time in Anchorage on Thursday, May 14th, marking a significant step forward for the Risk Assessment.
Nearly 30 stakeholders and experts participated in the full day of open and closed discussions, including the newly assembled Advisory Panel, Nuka Research and Planning Group (an expert firm selected to facilitate the Advisory Panel), the AIRA Management Team, public attendees and special guests. Advisory Panel members unable to attend in person participated via web conference.
“This Risk Assessment has been tasked with finding a way to reduce the risks that these ships and other human activities have posed to the Aleutian Islands and western Alaska,” said Rear Admiral Gene Brooks, Commander, 17th Coast Guard District, in his opening remarks during the public session. “The establishment of this Advisory Panel brings us one step closer to fulfilling that task.”
In 2008, a report titled “Special Report 293, Risk of Vessel Accidents and Spills in the Aleutian Islands: Designing a Comprehensive Risk Assessment,” was issued by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies to provide a scientifically rigorous framework for the AIRA. The TRB report recommended an organizational structure consisting of four key groups to complete the AIRA: a Management Team, an Advisory Panel, a Risk Analysis Team, and a Peer Review Panel. The Advisory Panel is intended to bring a structured stakeholder and participatory approach to the AIRA, to build public confidence in the project, clarify the values and goals that should inform the initiative, incorporate local information and knowledge that might otherwise be missed, and provide suggestions for potential policy changes from a variety of differing viewpoints.
The first major duty of the Advisory Panel during the opening meetings was to review and comment on a Request for Proposals (RFP) that will solicit the services of a Risk Analysis Team to perform the initial phase of the actual risk assessment. The RFP is scheduled to be released this week. More
7th Annual AK's Oceans Festival (6/7). What started out as a small group of people showing love for the ocean 7 years ago, turned into a what some say is now a favorite summer event in Anchorage.
Hundreds of Alaskans came out to the Delaney Park strip in Anchorage celebrating the 7th annual Alaska Oceans Festival.
Some were soaking up the sun, listening to music, but most importantly, organizers says this was a time to educate the public about the importance of protecting Alaska's waters.
Alaska Center for the Environment hosted the event.
Organizers say this year they had about 30 percent more vendors and booths from local nom- profits, state and federal agencies educating the public about the importance of healthy oceans and resources. They even added a new service to the event - a bike valet.
Organizers say this is a time when all groups using Alaska's waters like motor boats, sea kayakers, fishery managers and fishermen come together and set aside their differences for the sole purpose of recognizing the importance of the ocean's resources. "We think of ourselves as mountain people, we always look at the mountains the Chugach is right there but in fact splitting the Chugach and the creeks that are filled that come from the ocean and everyone loves their salmon. At Alaska Center for Environment, we like to make those connections," said Butch Allen with the Alaska Center for the Environment.
It's the end of the line for our fishing industry, warns film (6/7). World Ocean Day sees the release of a documentary on the devastating effects of overfishing, writes Roisin Burke. TOMORROW, the first ever World Ocean Day, is the day that makers of a new film which is already making waves have cannily chosen for its global release.
A film documentary, The End of the Line, reveals that hi-tech superfishing is emptying out our oceans so that there are, in fact, no longer plenty more fish in the sea.
It opens with an account of the devastating collapse of cod fish stocks in waters around Canada's Newfoundland in the early Nineties. Twenty years later, there has been little recovery.
Ireland would do well to take note. On this side of the Atlantic, "cod stocks have virtually collapsed in the Irish Sea, where there is little sign of recovery," the Irish Marine Institute reported on launching its 2008 stock book. "Cod stocks in the Celtic Sea also remain below sustainable levels." Whiting, haddock and plaice are in diminished supply as well, though lucrative mackerel stocks have grown by one-third. More
NMFS picks get mixed backing (6/8). The match competition between Arne Fuglvog, an Alaskan political aide, and Brian Rothschild, a Massachusetts academic researcher, to become chief steward of the nation's ocean resources and their dependent industrial cultures remains unresolved at the start of a new week.
Fuglvog, 45, has more endorsements; Rothschild, 74, the more impressive resume.
They are believed to be the finalists for the political appointment to the position of assistant administrator for fisheries in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Pay is upwards of $115,000.
Letters on behalf of Fuglvog, a former highliner whose father was a respected fish-industrialist, have been sent in by his boss, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and six Senate colleagues, as well as the influential Environmental Defense Fund, smaller environmental organizations and numerous Alaska fishery trade groups.
"Arne Fuglvog has been involved in commercial fishing and coastal community issues his entire life," Murkowski's letter noted. "He grew up in Petersburg, Alaska, started commercial fishing at the age of 13 and has participated in a variety of fisheries around the state of Alaska."
In a comment heard often about Fuglvog, the Marine Conservation Alliance praised him for the ability "to bring disparate groups together."
Fuglvog has acknowledged reaching out for political and activist support.
Rothschild's public endorsements, meanwhile, are few.
Even his sponsor and confidante, Congressman Barney Frank has left no paper trail. More
Ocean Conference Opens in Seward (KGLL Audio) (5/21). The 33rd Annual Conference of the Center for Oceans and Law Policy is underway at the Marine Education Center in Seward. The conference in previous years has been in Singapore, Germany, and Ireland. Organizers say it’s an attempt to bring together people from a variety of fields such as law, science, and politics to discuss the status of oceans. Day of Conference
Arctic conference emphasizes cooperation to address new issues (6/5). Representatives of the five countries with Arctic Ocean shorelines say existing international laws and treaties provide a sufficient framework to address political, environmental and commercial issues relating to the fast-melting polar sea.
But seven ambassadors among more than a dozen credentialed diplomats also acknowledged there are continuing disagreements over increasing ship traffic, and noted the lack of infrastructure and the inability to respond to human safety or environmental emergencies in a timely manner.
All said their governments are dedicated to cooperative resolution of disagreements, while internationally recognized researchers warned that quickly changing circumstances could overcome good intentions.
"We are still, as a nation, learning our responsibilities," Mead Treadwell, chairman of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, said at the opening of the conference, titled Changes in the Arctic Environment and Law of the Sea, held in Seward May 20-23.
The commission cosponsored the 33rd annual conference of the Center for Ocean Law and Policy, a University of Virginia Law School think tank. More
Fish council to review controversial crab ratz program (6/5). A controversial management plan that allocates the bulk of the multi-million dollar crab fishery to vessel owners, skippers, processors and coastal communities but none for the crew is heading for further scrutiny that could prove as stormy as the Bering Sea.
North Pacific Fishery Management Council staff members in a June meeting in Anchorage were scheduled to present a document considering the prospect of eliminating processor shares, and the likely ripple effect of that move through the fishing industry economy.
The initial crab rationalization program, which went into effect in August 2005, allocated rights to catch and process crab to vessel owners, skippers, coastal communities and processors based on their proven history in the fishery.
Anchorage economist Marcus Hartley of Northern Economics said it's difficult to compare earnings per person before and after crab rationalization began because of fluctuating total harvests and prices paid for crab.
Even as total harvests and numbers of participants in the fisheries fluctuate, "if you have fewer slices of the pie, the pieces of the pie are bigger," so that all participants, including vessel owners, skippers and crew, are collectively earning more, said Hartley, who recently completed an updated study on the overall affect of the seafood industry on Alaska's economy. More
Crab rationalization: How the program has affected crews (6/5). Leasing fees allowed under the federal crab rationalization program have severely affect crew compensation, economist Mark Fina said in a discussion paper for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.
The program, in effect since 2005, allows vessel owners who lease quota shares to deduct the cost of lease fees before determining crew pay, even though harvesting leased quota requires the same amount of effort as that initially allocated to the vessel. Fina, a senior economist on the council staff, prepared the report for the council's June meeting to address concerns that have surfaced since program was implemented.
Among alternatives to amend the program are options to increase the portion of the harvest share that must be held by persons active on vessels in the fisheries. Many of the leased quota shares are held by people no longer active in the fishery, but were acquired due to a harvest history during the qualifying period. More
High pressure tactics were in place at Dutch Harbor (6/9). On a foggy June day in 2002 at the treeless, windswept Port of Dutch Harbor, the federal fisheries panel charged by Congress with determining whether privatizing Bering Sea crab fisheries was needed gave its initial stamp of approval to such a plan.
Seven years later, with a plan to manage Alaska's crab fisheries through a quota share program in place, the North Pacific Fishery Management continues to wrestle with the fishery.
The legislation was intended to make the fishery safer by allocating shares, in place of the intense short fishery that resulted in many deaths at sea, and to provide economic stability through programs to end overcapitalization.
Still, what happened in Dutch Harbor continues to haunt the multi-million dollar crab industry, and the processors, vessel owners and crew involved.
The initial plan prompted a fierce debate that spread from the fish docks in Alaska to Washington, D.C., said veteran fisheries reporter Bob King in a document he wrote on the first 50 years of Alaska's commercial fisheries.
"The Justice Department opposed processor shares, arguing they were a disincentive to innovate. Arizona Senator John McCain also spoke out against processor shares, saying they 'throw an enormous wrench in the free market machinery,'" wrote King, now an aide to Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska. More
Fisherman Suspected of Boating Drunk (6/8). JUNEAU - The Coast Guard assisted the Ketchikan Police Department in arresting a fisherman who authorities suspect was drunk while driving a fishing vessel.
The Coast Guard relayed a call early Sunday morning to Ketchikan Police Department reporting the fishing vessel Lone Fisherman - a 58-foot troller home-ported in Petersburg - was maneuvering recklessly and bumping into other vessels.
The master of the vessel was arrested by Ketchikan police and charged with boating while intoxicated. His name was not immediately available.
Two other people on board were not charged, and released.
The Lone Fisherman is docked in Ketchikan. An investigation is being conducted by the Coast Guard. LinkUSCG PR
STATE
Fish and Game Officials Worried About Lack of Processing Capacity (KDLG Audio) (5/22). Sockeye salmon will be heading into Bristol Bay nets in a few weeks. And the the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is worried that there may not be enough processing capacity there to handle the runs. The agency has releaseda document highlighting the probability of sockeye harvests in the Bay exceeding the processing capacity this season.
Opinion. Bristol Bay fishery hits impressive milestone (6/6). As Alaskans mark the 50th anniversary of statehood this year, the commercial fishermen of Bristol Bay set sail for their 125th season today. They do so in much more comfort and with better gear than the pioneering fishermen of the bay. Fishing today is very different from the time up until 1951 when salmon were netted from sailboats.
Despite the differences, however, the essential activity remains the same -- it still takes two hands to pick a salmon out of the net. In the last century and a quarter tens of thousands of pairs of hands have picked hundreds of millions of salmon from the nets of Bristol Bay. More
Opilio crab TACS might be slashed (6/5). Opilio crab TACs might be drastically lowered this year - from 58.6 million pounds last season to as low as 9.4 million pounds. This is the recommendation of the crab plan team, which advises the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Alaska Department of Fish & Game on setting the total allowable catches for the crab fisheries. Fisheries biologist and plan team member Forrest Bowers said that when they met last month they discussed the health of the opilio stocks. Snow crabs were declared overfished in 1999 and fisheries managers implemented a 10-year-long rebuilding plan. This is the eighth year.
"Based on all of the projections up until this point we had been on track to be rebuilt in 10 years however after the most recent survey and the most recent fishery, the stock status trajectory changed a little bit and that derailed us," he said.
The only way to get back on track is to seriously limit the fishing. The snow crab fishery will not be considered rebuilt until the stock levels are above the biomass maximum sustainable yield, a level that produces good long-term returns, for two years in a row. Looking at current survey data, the stocks are 60 million pounds too low. But Bowers says the level changes each year depending on the summer stock surveys, which are finished in August. This summer's data will help them determine the TACs, which will be announced in October.
It is unclear what will happen if the fishery is not considered rebuilt by 2010. NOAA lawyers are trying to clarify what the Magnuson-Stevens Act says.
If the snow crab TAC is drastically cut, Bowers says the fleet will probably be much smaller and fish a much shorter season. It would also seriously impact the city's income from the fish landing tax. Last year, the total ex-vessel value for the fishery was about $80 million. Link
MARKETING
Global Foods Collaborative will morph into Professional Foods Group (6/5/09). Global Food Collaborative, which began as an effort to facilitate business and investment in Alaska's food supply chain through greater transparency, is about to morph into a next generation, fast moving Web-based form, to be called Professional Foods Group.
Owner/partners Robin Richardson, Andrew Riehemann and Herb Dudley say their new market and buyer-driven firm will give participants an effective Web-based tool for collaborating within their market sector.
Word of the transition into Professional Foods Group came on the eve of Global Food Collaborative's Global Food Alaska 2009, set for June 10-12 in Soldotna. The event brings together dozens of buyers and producers of Alaska food products and others involved in myriad links in the food supply chain, including packagers and transporters of these products.
Additional information on the change will be provided at the Soldotna event. More
Marine Conservation Alliance
431 N Franklin St Ste 305
Juneau, AK 99801-1186
